"You're gonna lose a lot of excitement in the sport" - Dan Hooker shares his honest opinion on open scoring in MMA
During his interview with John Hyon Ko on The AllStar's, Dan Hooker was asked to share his thoughts on open scoring in MMA. According to ‘The Hangman’, it would only mean a lot less excitement in the sport.
At the start, Hooker brought up UFC president Dan White’s take on the matter:
“I think like Dana White’s argument against that is like a fighters are two rounds up. They see the two rounds off the score, then they just coast, right? Just move away, be defensive. They just coast it out. I think that will happen. That will happen a lot if it is open scoring or something like that. There would be a lot of stalling. A lot of fight would have a lot of stalling.”
Next, he stated that anticipation of the official announcement is one of the key factors in all combat sports. According to Hooker, most people don't have any idea about how the fights are scored or why they’ve been scored the way they did:
“Combat sports have always been like that. Boxing has always been like that. Like gets it to the end, two guys stand. And it’s like the anticipation at the end. Because a lot of people don’t understand how fights are scored. Or which way they’ve been scored. They are a few key details that are certainly open for interpretation.. You gonna lose that anticipation at the end”
Hooker said that fighters know when they’re losing the fight and when they should go out with guns blazing. In his opinion, an open scoring in MMA only leads to one thing:
“You’re gonna lose a lot of excitement in the sport.”
Watch Dan Hooker discuss the open scoring in MMA at 1:13:03 of the video below:
Dan Hooker responded to Rafael dos Anjos' callout for a fight in July-August
Rafael dos Anjos issued an open challenge for a fight in July or August. RDA posted a generic tweet with a callout to anyone who is ready for a summertime showdown.
Dan Hooker posted in response:
‘The Hangman’ is one of the most entertaining fighters in the UFC. However, he has not found success of late as he’s currently on a two-fight losing streak and has lost four out of the last five. Meanwhile, RDA is riding a two-fight winning streak and is targeting a lightweight title contender status.